Alleged bank robber's competency status puts trial on hold

It was a little before 9:30 in the morning on a bright February day when a bearded man wearing sunglasses and a knit hat approached the teller's window at Eastern Bank's Main Street branch.

He did not speak. He simply passed a note to the teller that read:

“Give me all your money I have a knife and gun.”

Frank Mulligan

It was a little before 9:30 in the morning on a bright February day when a bearded man wearing sunglasses and a knit hat approached the teller’s window at Eastern Bank’s Main Street branch.

He did not speak. He simply passed a note to the teller that read:

“Give me all your money I have a knife and gun.”

He then handed the teller a bag.

The teller placed $3,975 into the bag before handing it back to the man.

The teller also mixed 10, $100 “bait” bills in with the cash. Their serial numbers were recorded, effectively marking them so that their use could be traced.

The man then fled the bank. Video footage taken from a nearby store’s security camera showed the man running from the bank, and disappearing from view as he ran away from Main Street toward Merchants Way.

Police were on the scene within minutes but the man was gone. However, he left his handwritten note behind.

And he also left fairly clear images of himself taken from the bank’s surveillance video that police quickly passed onto the media and law enforcement agencies.

It wasn’t long before his identity became known.

Two anonymous callers to Wareham police identified the bank robber as Nicholas Liadis of Carver, who was 35 at the time of the 2013 robbery. One of the callers told police where he worked in Duxbury.

Carver police were also contacted and an officer there identified Liadis from a surveillance photo broadcast on the TV news.

More IDs also came in and police arrested Liadis at the pizza shop where he worked in Duxbury on the same evening the robbery occurred. He admitted to police the money was in the trunk of the car he had used. Police recovered the money as well as clothing and the sunglasses he had worn.

Wareham police also contacted Middleborough police, who had surveillance images of a man who had robbed the Taunton Federal Credit Union in a Trucchi’s Supermarket in their town four months earlier on Nov. 10.

That robber was also silent while passing a note to the teller stating he had a knife and a gun. He also brought his own bag for the money.

Once again, Liadis was identified, this time through the Middleborough photos. He was wearing the same jacket, hat and glasses, according to police reports.

Liadis was charged with two counts of armed robbery for the Wareham and Middleborough thefts.

In a March 2013 Wareham District Court hearing, Liadis was released into a family member’s custody on $5,000 bail, and ordered to wear a GPS device and remain in home confinement.

This was after the results of a Bridgewater State Hospital evaluation were presented that found Liadis incompetent to stand trial.

Attorney Matthew Walsh, who represented Liadis, also provided evidence bolstering that assessment. He said Liadis had an organic mental defect that had been borne out by separate evaluations when he was 16 and 30 years of age. The last evaluation placed his IQ at below 70.

Walsh said at the hearing that Liadis had no criminal history or history of violence, and that his mental status couldn’t be corrected by therapy or medication. He also told the court there was a possibility Liadis had been influenced by someone to commit the robberies. He said that possibility was being investigated.

Liadis was nonetheless arraigned on the charges two months later in Plymouth County Superior Court.

A spokesman for the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office said the issue of Liadis’ competence was fluid, that he could be found competent to stand trial in a future proceeding.

The Liadis case proceeded in Superior Court.

In February of this year, his attempt to plead guilty was rejected by the court. He was found to be incompetent to offer a plea, according to court records.

His case was continued in March when the court ruled he was incompetent to stand trial “at this time,” according to court records.

His bail was reduced to $100. It was stipulated that he continue to report to probation once a month by phone, and continue behavioral health treatment.

According to court records, it was also stipulated that he have “no contact” with a man listed in the ruling.

And his case was continued for two years.

According to court records, it will be reopened on March 21, 2016.

The court will then mull whether his competency has improved enough for trial on the two armed robbery counts.